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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8280 in Books
• Published on: 1998-07-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 480 pages

From Publishers Weekly
The netherworld of New York City?its subways, aqueducts, sewers and the homeless who inhabit them?proves as shuddery a setting for the authors' latest scientific monster mash as the American Museum of Natural History did for their bestselling Relic, to which this is the sequel. In the earlier novel, Mbwun, a ferocious creature that seemed part reptile, part human, rampaged through the museum killing people. The sequel, set 18 months after Mbwun was destroyed, opens with a police diver finding the headless bodies of two people apparently killed by underground cannibals. The corpses are sent to the museum's lab for analysis, which brings a number of returnees from Relic?burly homicide cop Vincent D'Agosta, anthropologist Margo Green, New York Post crime reporter Bill Smithback?to the case. They're soon joined by the novels' Sherlock Holmes figure, the irresistibly cool Special Agent Pendergast of the FBI. Forays by these principals into the kingdom of the Mole People (underground homeless), plus some forensic breakthroughs, point to a race of mini-Mbwun at work in an escalating series of savage killings that incite the city's upper crust to civil disobedience. The city's answer, to flood its nether vaults, turns out to threaten a global catastrophe that only Pendergast and company, aided by Navy SEALS, can avert. The story's "surprise" ending makes as much sense as ketchup on popcorn, and the entire novel has a desperate air about it as the authors stuff it with complications and, by pitting the homeless against the swells, try to create a kind of Decapitation of the Vanities. It's high on suspense and tremendous fun in parts, though, especially when exploring the city's nightmare underbelly. Literary Guild and Doubleday Book Club alternate selections.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
The curator of the Natural History Museum rejoins police and the FBI as they attempt to solve horrific murders. A frightening sequel to The Relic, it's a terrific read on its own.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
The discovery of two decapitated skeletons in the murky sludge of the Harlem River necessitates the forensic services of anthropologists Margo Green and Dr. Frock, who worked together in The Relic (LJ 9/15/94). New York Post reporter Bill Smithback also returns, looking for a major scoop via a society victim's mother, as does Lieutenant D'Agosta, who has connected these gruesome?possibly cannibalistic?deaths to a series of like murders in the scary tunnels beneath the city. This meaty blend of police procedural, thriller, and horror flick should prove most popular and may revive interest in the earlier best seller. Essential.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Reliquary? Oh the horror!
Reliquary is an exhilarating sequel to the book, Relic. We find ourselves once again in New York, with Margo Green, Vincent D'Agosta, Agent Pendergast, and many more new characters, who meet up to solve a new series of crimes. A police diving team discovered two skeletons, both headless in a bay in New York. These headless skeletons trigger a massive investigation, to find out who, or what, did this. While the investigation goes on, the mystery deepens as more and more people are being found dead. Now, Margo, D'Agosta, Pendergast, and many more will have to work together and face fresh fears to find out, and solve, the cause of these mysteries.
I thought this was a great book, and that the authors, Douglass Preston, and Lincoln Child, really know how to crank out a murder mystery/ horror/ action novel that will make your head spin. This book is crammed full of logic that makes it seem like any of this could really happen. This book also puts you in many different perspectives, and you could look through anyone's eyes, and still be part of the story. There is not one single detail left out in the writing of this book, and once the action starts, it just keeps coming. Although there is a long period in the beginning, where not much seems to happen, it is vital, and small things that happened in the beginning will bring up major problems later and so forth. This book is also unpredictable. It's impossible to guess anything that happens, until it actually happens. I highly recommend this book if you're of a higher reading level, want a challenging read, and love any type of mystery novels.

A macabre & exhilirating listening adventure
Reliquary is the sequel to Relic which first introduced us to FBI special agent Pendergast. This story picks up where the original story ended, but we are now drawn outside the halls of the venerable museum in which the first story took place. Now, we are taken below ground - deep below ground. We are introduced to a dark world, peopled with strange characters living in alien blackness. Outcasts from the world above, these "mole" people have fled the daylight to escape the trappings of traditional society, as well as societal injustice and inequality. But there's something else dwelling in the darkness with them; creatures from the Devil's Attic that prowl the silent darkness, feeding on them.
But the mole people aren't enough to satisfy their appetite. When the creatures venture beyond the boundaries of their underground lair and kill the daughter of a prominent New Yorker, Special agent Pendergast must once again become involved.
Assisted by his old friends at the museum, Margo Green & Dr Frock, as well his invaluable side-kick, NY police sergeant Vincent D'Agosta, not to mention the erstwhile journalist William Smithback, Pendergast and crew struggle to unravel the mystery without becoming the next victims.
Their adventure takes them from the most luxe and exclusive Park Avenue penthouse, to disgusting sewage drains, down a labyrinth of old, crumbling subway tunnels, to ancient & abandoned train stations - straight into the very heart of monsters' lair.

This is an excellent un-abridged audio recording of an old and favorite book.

Another interesting Preston/Child book
I agree with most people that this book did not live up to Relic, but it is still a great story. It reads well as an independent book and the setting is very interesting below NYC. I think that it took a little bit too long to really get going, but when it did it was really strong.